Heavenbound
by Randombore
Summary: "Please... be happy. By the time you read this, I'll probably be in heaven by then. But someday, when we meet face-to-face again, I hope you'll be able to tell me just what I want to hear. 'I was happy.' That's all I would want." Youhei Sunohara, Kyou Fujibayashi and the rest of the crew take life into their own hands and find happiness within this little world of theirs.
1. Prologue - The Beginning of the End

**Heavenbound**

* * *

_Author's Note: Clannad strictly belongs to its respective (and undoubtedly genius) creators. Plain and simple enough, don't you think? This story is based on and dedicated to a true story s__imply known as 'The Last Assignment From a Dying Teacher'. I'm just flinging all cares out the window and writing as I go along! This is a fanfiction that revolves around Youhei Sunohara and Kyou Fujibayashi; however, all of the cast will get a spot in the limelight. ____So I hope you enjoy! _

* * *

___Prologue - The Beginning of the End_

* * *

___They say fools never learn._

_"Heh." _He took a quick swipe at the pink-hued tip of his nose, scoffing with dry listlessness. His footsteps were pressed against the white blanket of snow, as though they were attempting to make their own mark in a world like this. '_In a world like this?' _His thoughts echoed within the deepest crevices of his mind. They rang so clearly, like a voice in the dark. If only he could say the same about his vision, which was _oh, so_ blurred beneath the ongoing stream of tears that had left his face numb. He ran his fingers through his once-blonde locks, shifting them out of the path of his tears.

"Well... I suppose I'll have to be the first _fool_ to break that mold." A curt, melancholy chuckle broke out for a moment, but it was easily silenced by the sound of its own despondent resonance. His lip trembled as he tried to register the cold, granite stone jutting out of the ground.

"R-right... _Fujibayashi?_"

Youhei. _Youhei Sunohara _was his name. Though there was no one here to call out to him. Sunohara could call out to Fujibayashi all he wanted. But that meant nothing. Nothing at all anymore.

The others had respected his space and taken their own diverging paths elsewhere. He was left to wallow in his own shadows, in the trailing memories that were left behind. Left here to gaze at a cold gravestone of a person who would never see the light of day again. His sapphire eyes were clouded in unmistaken grief and murky tears; blood shot. Oh good God above, how terribly bloodshot they were.

He would let out another weak scoff, as though he was trying to hold himself together. But no amount of dry, empty laughter would bring back... The name was caught in his throat.

'_Fujibayashi._

_Loving teacher._'

The gravestone read like so, smooth like the path of a wishing star and painfully staggering like the emptiness of space. But that's just how life was. Cold. So very cold. The tips of his fingers ran down the gravestone slowly, as though they were trying to take in the full extent of what had come to be. His fingers stopped at the quote written right below. And he let out a single, breathless chuckle.

"Only you, _Fujibayashi." _He muttered under his breath, lightheaded at just how much one person could _still_ feel so _real _even though they were _gone. _

_"Only you."_

_"Someday, when we meet face-to-face again, please let me hear you say, "I was happy"._

_That's all I could ever wish for."_

* * *

_Afternotes: It's the beginning of the end after all, huh? Take note of the titles and just hold on to your hearts, ladies and gentlemen. The real story's about to begin._


	2. Chapter 1 - You Have a Lot to Learn

**Heavenbound**

* * *

_Author's Note: __Back step to the past! Let's get this show on the road. Ah yes, by the way, the chapters from now on will not be as short as the first chapter. Language warning. I hope you enjoy!_

* * *

_You Have a Lot to Learn_

* * *

"_YOUUUUUHEEEEI!" _A shrill voice cracked the slow-paced atmosphere, splitting a few eardrums along the way. The next thing Youhei could register was a searing pain on his forehead and more than half his body hanging off the second-story windowsill. "_GOD-" _His terrified screams only grew more clamorous as he realized the only reason why he hadn't plummeted like steel weight _yet _was because Tomoya had taken hold of him _by his pants. _And to think, Youhei thought today was just the right day to wear his lucky heart-print boxers. _Well, _he stood corrected. Or uh… 'hung off a windowsill' corrected in this case.

"Tomoya, _what are you doing!?_" Youhei boomed, feeling the blood pressure getting to his head. Without hearing a proper answer from above, he picked up his voice a decibel higher. "TOMOYA, _I SWEAR_, ARE YOU GOING TO LEAVE ME HANGING—"

Inside the room, Tomoya had instinctively gripped at the closest part of Sunohara he could reach at. And conveniently enough, his fingers wound around the ends of Sunohara's pants; he had stopped pulling Sunohara up after Tomoya was sure wouldn't lose his grip. He had his other hand cautiously hovering over Sunohara's feet, just in case Sunohara's pants wanted to part from him. However, his friend would be safe and dandy; Tomoya could never truly bear to see his friend go down under his watch. Though... that didn't necessarily mean he couldn't have a bit of fun on his end. _See, _Tomoya was in quite the satiric mood and _well…_ he contemplated in taking advantage of this situation.

Tomoya raised his voice in a calm, nonchalant manner. "You know, Sunohara… Just for that 'hanging' pun, I might just drop you." A person could nearly hear the eye rolling just from his tone.

"_What!? Tomoya! Best friend of mine! Think of your life without me!_" Sunohara resisted the impulse to squirm in exasperation. He could feel his pants slowly slipping off and couldn't help remembering the multitude of times where Tomoya had just allowed him to get the punching bag treatment. He felt the dread in each hair standing on end.

"That just makes me want to drop you even more."

"Ouch, man." To think that they were best friends. _Yeah. The best of friends. _Oh, how short life was. _Man, _he would have liked to have learned the motives behind his incoming death. _Hmph._ At least he could recognize the voice of the perpetrator a mile away.

"_Why not just drop him then?" _A blunt, irritable incomer had arrived, inquiring Tomoya's actions on this situation. She rested a relaxed fist on her hip and naturally leaned to one side. Tomoya would have given her a thumbs-up for her signature stance if he wasn't busy deciding his friend's fate.

"_Ah yes, the red-handed, almost murderer is here to grace me with her presence." _Youhei muttered with a snide tone. He was aiming to end his life right here and right now, wasn't he?

"_HNGH… _If you wanted to die now, you could have just asked, you idiot!" Kyou Fujibayashi felt like breaking Tomoya's firm grasp right now and…

"Sis…! Calm down! T-this isn't the proper thing to do at all..." A frantic voice piped in. Perhaps there _were_ guardian angels in this world after all.

'_Oh thank the heavens…!' _Sunohara was simply maudlin, moved to ridiculous tears by the miracle that was Ryou Fujibayashi. If someone could see him right now, they'd ask where the metaphorical sparkles of joy were coming from. He really _could_ take all the negative aspects in his life and turn it right around if he was given the chance. Sometimes his friends wondered if he was a ray of ignorant bliss or just pathetically idiotic. Both. _Both sounded just about right. _

"Now if you… please… Okazaki…" Ryou's sweet voice hesitantly asked for peace amongst the bustling trouble that they always seemed to stir up. Folding her fingers together patiently, she nervously glanced to her long-haired sister, who was still dead set on punishing the young man hanging out the window.

Kyou's shoulders loosened slightly at Ryou's pleading glance and she shrugged grudgingly. "Fine. Just fine. I was doing this for you anyway, Ryou..." She let a quiet sigh slip from her lips, as her violet eyes shone dully. Dealing with this idiot was draining, to say the least. "Tomoya, bring him up, will you? Since I couldn't teach him his _final _lesson, I'll just _nail_ this one into this head instead."

Tomoya rolled his eyes subtly. "Always got a demand on hand, don't you, Kyou?" He chuckled unevenly as she eyed him angrily. His sarcasm might just end up getting both of them out the window...

Meanwhile, outside, Sunohara was in deep praise to the God above for letting him live another day. He had been going on about being 'a perfect son' to his parents, being 'the best friend he could ever be', and even being 'a spectacular student starting from today'. Oh, how his list could go on forever and ever. But his list ended short as he was finally pulled back into the room. All was safe and sound, but there was always one condition.

The giant _tear _sound coming from his pants didn't sound so swell. "_CRRRRAAP!" _Sunohara slapped a hand over his mouth to hold himself back from screaming at the top of his lungs. Kyou and Tomoya were doing the same, but the light of malignant laughter was in their eyes.

"Are you going to tell me why the hell you tried to kill me now? Or are you going to keep chuckling nonchalantly as though you've done nothing wrong!?" A warm blush brushed on his cheeks and his ears were burning up from embarrassment. He was turning positively red from the mocking looks from the other students simply passing by in the hallway.

Kyou tried holding in her laughter, arm so naturally across her stomach as she failed to keep it in. Her lips trembled, but it was far too late to stop herself from bursting into snickers. The lavender-locked girl wiped a tear as she exclaimed, "Yeah, yeah. Alright... I was just enjoying the view of your heart print boxers."

"_Oh? _Is that how it is...?" Sunohara rose an eyebrow suggestively; naturally taking her words much too seriously for his own good. "Well I'm sure you can get a much better view if you just asked-" In the blink of an eye, another excruciating pain pierced his forehead and something thumped onto his lap. A _dictionary?_ His hands were automatically up to his face, trying to stop the throbbing. "_GOD DAMN IT, KYOU. WHAT WAS THAT FOR!?" _Sunohara was about to slam both his hands onto the table in protest, but he realized that she had walked up close enough for him to literally meet him face to face.

She brought a finger down to the thick book on his lap, opened to a page that had shown signs of wear over the years. She stopped at a single word at the bottom-left of the dictionary section. _  
_

_"respect (n) \ri-ˈspekt\_

_esteem for; a sense of the worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or ability"_

_"Respect. It's about time you learned, don't you think?_" Her grimace was bold, contorting her fine face into something entirely different. She had always been disgusted with Sunohara, but when it involved Ryou, she would nearly burst into flames. "Think twice before you leave your porn sticking out of your desk, you idiot!" Her eyes flashed to Ryou again, who had shrunken away under her sister's overprotectiveness. "I know you've got terrible tastes, but there's no need to have it out in the open for other people to accidentally run into, alright?"

"Did you _really _almost kill me because my porn was- _Wait, _why was Ryou even looking through my stuff in the first place?" He turned his attention to Ryou, who put up her hands as though gesturing for them to slow down before they started fanning the fires once more.

"No, the question is, _why would you leave your porn sticking out so obviously _that someone could actually run into it?" Tomoya interjected with a roll of his eyes.

"I-" Ryou was cut off by her sister, who bluntly spoke for her. "Ryou was looking out for you, idiot! Save the questions for something important!" She folded her arms over her chest in impending frustration.

Ryou rose a finger to interject the tense atmosphere that was building up between the two. It seemed as though this was just another day in their lives. Just another _fiery_ day. "Sunohara... I was just cleaning up for you. As the class representative, I have to make my rounds around the class at some point," she explained gently. Her sapphire eyes glowed in an honesty not even Tomoya could shoot down sarcastically.

Sunohara sighed, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment and glum surrender. "Right, right... If I decide to bring my _fantastic_ reading selection to school-" Kyou eyed him down furiously and he shrunk away from that line of thought. "I'll be careful next time... or something."

The long-haired beauty groaned, bringing a palm to her face. So much for a "lesson".

It sounded like Sunohara had a lifetime to go before he learned _his _lesson. That's for sure.

* * *

Toshio Koumura, the elderly advisor of the drama club and the resident language teacher at Hikarizaka Private High School, softly sighed as the sun was setting on another day. He had slowly strolled along in the later years of his life, filling the spaces in between with grand moments of inspiration, growth and chalk dust. Aside from teaching, a lifetime of _learning_ was written under his name. Students' bold tears as they looked for their place in the world, the subtle bite on the side of their lips when they were so unsure of themselves, the warm glow in students' eyes when they succeeded...

Mr. Koumura had so much more to learn from the depths of their hearts. _Surely, teaching truly did have its perks. _

In the corner of his eye, he caught sight a lively group of five taking their leave. He watched them from his place on the second floor, laughing and bickering, as though the weight of time on their shoulders was nothing at all. The silly, eccentric blonde was being chased on a scooter by the hot-headed, lavender haired one. The nonchalant raven-haired boy walked along side the bright brunette with a winning smile, as the sweetly, shy lavender-haired girl laughed at the scene rolling out.

Out of all his years, he couldn't have named favorites; the elder understood the importance of _all_ youth, of their passion, of their weaknesses, and of their underlying individuality. So... perhaps he should have worded that differently. He couldn't name just _one_ favorite, or _two, _or even _three... In the end, they were all his favorites. And he could name them all by heart._

_Nagisa Furukawa. Tomoya Okazaki._ _Ryou Fujibayashi. Kyou Fujibayashi. _And_ Youhei Sunohara. _

What did their lives have planned? Just how far in life would they get? Who were they destined to be?

Mr. Koumura gave a short chuckle and muttered to himself under his breath, _"Oh, how silly of you, Toshio. You should know better by now."_

It didn't matter where they ended in the future. It wasn't _just _about destiny. It was about grabbing life by their own two hands and making their mark in the world. It was about the road they walked getting to their destination. It was about being happy. _It was about living_.

He shook his head wistfully and walked away from the window, dusting his hands of chalk.

He truly _did_ have a lot to learn.

* * *

_Afternotes_: _This chapter was planned out much differently from when I had originally wrote it out, but I'm glad it turned out this way! As I said from the prologue, everyone from Clannad will make a difference in this story. Mr. Koumura included. Just you wait._


End file.
